Institutional staking, car network and Move VM funding agreements
Despite the lack of liquidity as private investments are burdened by high interest rates, crypto-based startups have launched in 2024, announcing new funding opportunities in various sectors.
January highlights include smart contract platform Axiom raising $20 million for its zero-knowledge approach to verifying on-chain data, Portal's $34 million seed funding for Bitcoin (BTC) atomic swaps, and crypto exchange HashKey hitting unicorn status after raising nearly $100 million. . Series A funding round.
Ecosystems are also playing a role in supporting early-stage ventures. For example, the Solana Foundation chose the Colosseum to manage the Accelerated Program, which started with a $250,000 investment. Digital asset marketplace developer Keyrock announced $10 million in token capital to support the development of the Radix public ledger ecosystem.
The latest edition of Cointelegraph's VC Roundup features some of the startups that raised capital in January.
Staking platform Kiln raises $17 million for APAC expansion
Ethereum staking platform Kiln has closed a $17 million funding round to open its Singapore headquarters and support product development, according to an announcement made on Jan 18. The round was led by pre-stage investment firm 1kx with the participation of IOSG. , Crypto.com, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, LBank and contributions from existing investors. Killeen offers an enterprise-level staking platform, which allows organizations to provide staking services along with a white label feature that rewards institutions for securing the Ethereum blockchain. The company said last year it more than quintupled its shares under management by partnering with several operators such as Ledger Live, Crypto.com and Coinbase. Killeen has raised $17 million in Series A funding through 2023, which is nearly $35 million more than its total capital raised in 2018.
Digital Infrastructure Inc secured $11.5 million for Car Network
Digital Infrastructure Inc., publisher of Demo Mobile and developer of the Demo Network, announced an $11.5 million round of funding led by CoinFund and backed by Slow Ventures, Consensys Mesh, Borderless Capital, Table Management, General Motors CEO Richard Wagoner and more. Other existing investors. DEMO is a connected vehicle network for consumers. Every time a vehicle is added to the network, a digital twin is created that can be used with any app or service. According to the company, users will get rewards connected to the car's information and get better prices for maintenance, fuel, insurance and flight services based on the car's accurate information. Its demo network has grown by 900% by 2023, from 3,000 to 33,000 chain cars.
Lightspeed Venture, Pantera joins Pontem's $6-million round for its Move VM platform.
Development studio Pontum closed a $6-million round in January to support Move Virtual Machine (VM) products on Ethereum virtual machine-compatible blockchains. Investors backing the startup include Lightspeed Faction and Lightspeed Venture Partners along with Kraken Ventures, Pantera Capital and Wintermute. Pontum began development of Move-based products in 2019, using its programming language on Meta's Libra Blockchain (later renamed). The Pontem team has received its first funding in 2021 to develop a license-free version of the Libra Blockchain that integrates Move VM. As the Diem project evolved into Aptos and Sui, Pontem decided to build infrastructure on the Aptos network for its Move ecosystem. In June 2021, Pontum raised $4.5 million in a private token sale led by Mechanism Capital and Kinetic Capital in partnership with Delphi Ventures and Animoka Brands. The latest round brings the total amount raised to $10.5 million, the startup said.
1/ We're excited to support @PontemNetwork with a $6 million round as they continue to build around the Move ecosystem.https://t.co/1eVnh1UrmX
— Pantera Capital (@PanteraCapital) January 14, 2024
p0 kicks off with $6.5 million in funding to solve software bugs using generative AI
The p0 platform raised $6.5 million for the first time, backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Alchemy Ventures. The new startup offers large-scale language models (LLMs) to identify security and safety issues in software, helping developers improve security. According to the company, the platform can handle software issues such as data integrity issues and authentication failures along with speed and time limit issues via GitHub code repositories. Behind the startup are Prakash Sankar and Kunal Agarwal, Stanford and Harvard alumni, respectively, as listed on LinkedIn.
Magazine: Which gaming association has positioned itself best for the bull market?
